Thursday, 25 September 2008

Faith and reason

Caputo makes a passionate plea for faith and reason. He notes that the American Right keeps praying for a return to the religious vision of the American founders, but says they should be careful lest their prayers be answered, for the founders "were men of the Enlightenment who would have been appalled by the strident sectarian agenda of the Christian Right and by its way of riding roughshod over the differences of opinion that the founders set out to protect from oppression." He ends this way:

In the widest and most generous sense of (uncapitalized) 'enlightenment,' there are many lights, and the light of reason and the light of faith are among our leading lights. God bless both of them together. God bless the 'and' and keep it safe. (Caputo, Philosophy and Theology 36)